A British nurse, 39-year-old Pauline Cafferkey, who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone and was hospitalised in London this week is now in a “critical” condition, the hospital treating her said Saturday, reports the Agence France-Presse.
This comes a few days after doctors said Cafferkey was sitting up in bed, reading and talking to staff from inside her isolation tent in the hospital.
“The condition of Pauline Cafferkey has gradually deteriorated over the past two days and is now critical,” said the Royal Free Hospital in London in a statement.
Cafferkey, who was working with the charity Save the Children in Sierra Leone when she contracted the deadly virus, was reported to have agreed to have blood plasma treatment and take an experimental anti-viral drug.
However, they were not able to give her ZMapp, the drug successfully used to treat fellow British volunteer nurse William Pooley, because global supplies had run out. The plasma was taken from the blood of a patient successfully treated in Europe, in the hope that the antibodies it contained would help her fight the virus.
According to the AFP, Cafferkey is the second person to be treated for Ebola in Britain after Pooley, who recovered and has since returned to Sierra Leone. Cafferkey was diagnosed in Glasgow on December 29 after flying home, and was transferred to the Royal Free, which has the only isolation ward in Britain equipped for Ebola patients.
Meanwhile, the British government has announced that it is undertaking contact tracing of at least 100 people following the confirmed case of Ebola in a health-care worker returning from Sierra Leone.
In a statement released on its website, Britain said the person had left Sierra Leone on December 28 and had been a passenger on flight AT596 from Freetown to Casablanca, flight AT0800 from Casablanca to London, and transferred at Heathrow to flight BA1478 for onward travel to Glasgow.
The returning worker was screened at Heathrow Airport on arrival, in line with standard procedures. At the point of being screened, he did not show any symptoms of a fever. The patient added that he had been well in the previous 24 hours and was cleared to travel home as per the protocol, the statement added.
So far, 85 passengers have been spoken to.
The statement read in part, “Although the risk of infection to other passengers on the flights is considered extremely low, Public Health England is contacting 100 passengers, and the crew on the flight from Casablanca to Heathrow.
An additional 32 international passengers are being contacted by international public health authorities. Health Protection Scotland is carrying out a similar exercise for the 71 passengers on the Heathrow to Glasgow flight, speaking with 56 to date.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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